


The Whole World At Our Feet

by Lukutoukka



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cute, Sailing, some flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 08:25:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14786933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lukutoukka/pseuds/Lukutoukka
Summary: Nursey goes sailing. Dex takes him up the rigging.





	The Whole World At Our Feet

**Author's Note:**

> This is me working through my own sailing trip. Make of it what you will. Posted now because gdi, that first SCF game.

“You want to come up with me?” Nursey looks at the guy who just adressed him… Dex, he thinks his name is. 

“When do I have to decide? Right now?” Nursey had been up the mast earlier already and while it had been okay, he isn’t sure he needs to do it again. Dex considers.

“You got a couple of minutes. But not too long. We have to get up there and pack up the sail soon.” He’s pulling on his safety harness as he’s talking and Nurse sighs. Thinks of that part where he’ll have to climb around the edge of the platform again, up and down.

“Alright, I’ll do it.” Within half a minute, Dex is pressing a safety harness in his hands.

“Let’s see if we have to… mind if I adjust this leg strap?” Nursey looks down from where he’s fighting the strap across his chest.

“Go for it dude,” he says and Dex starts lengthening the strap with practiced movements, then closes it. He leaves and comes back with the safety rope just as Nursey is fiddling to close the other leg strap too. 

Dex is hovering. “Mind if I…” 

“Dude, seriously, go for it,” Nursey says and gestures to his chest. Dex puts the hook through the two loops in front of Nursey’s chest and Nursey screws the clasp tight. A minute later, he follows Dex over to the side of the ship and looks up, when a colleague of Dex comes by. 

“You going up to the gallant sail?” he asks and Dex looks up. Derek follows his gaze, but he’s not quite sure what the gallant sail is.

“Shit, no one’s up there yet?” Dex turns around to Derek. “We’ll have to go up one further than I thought. You still wanna come?” Derek looks up again. About 30 feet above their heads, there’s people already on that sail. Another 15 or so feet up, there’s another sail waiting to be packed up. Nursey guesses that’s the gallant sail. He takes a breath.

“Does that mean I’ll have to climb around two platforms?”

Dex nods. “But I actually think the second one is easier to climb around.”

“Alright… In for a penny, in for a pound, right?” Dex makes a face at him and -

“Sorry, English Major. It’s an expression -” 

“I know what it means. We get a lot of tourists. And I do read occasionally, believe it or not.”

And just like that they’re climbing up the rigging again. It’s a little easier to climb around the edge of the platform than the first time and Nursey starts to relax a little. He’s relaxed all the way up to the second platform, which was indeed easier to reach than the first one.

“Alright, we gotta go up once more,” Dex says and does indeed climb up one more, to where the mast - ends? That’s not quite right, it does extend higher, but it looks as if they’re standing on top of the mast. Well, Dex at the moment. And then Dex makes a casual step on the slim steel cable running under the sail and suddenly Nursey is very nervous again. He’s supposed to stand on that?

“Alright, get up here. So, when you’re standing securely, you make one step over here, on the cable, and I’ll secure the first of your security ropes.” Nursey takes a deep breath and does as he’s told. The cable moves when he steps in it, away from his mass. He reconsiders his choice in shoes. Dex secures the rope.

“Alright, now you step over here. You can grab this rope as a hand hold. At your pace, no stress. Very good. I’ll secure this rope a little tighter, so you can’t fall as deep,” Dex quibs, and Nursey smiles. The cable beneath his feet his moving every which way whenever he shifts his weight and he doesn’t feel secure at all. How is he supposed to work like this?

“Now, if you lean forward, with your belly on the top of the sail, you take some of your weight off your feet and stand more securely. Yes, like that. And you have your hands free to work. Now, I’ll move outwards, but Lardo will be here in a second and help you with what you got to do, okay?” Nursey nods.

“Alright,” a female voice interjects. “Can you move over a bit? Just as far as you’re comfortable with.” Nursey shuffles along the cable. His right foot has started to tremble, but he’s actually feeling rather good.

“Alright, you’ll tell me if you’re not okay, right?” the girl next to him, Lardo, asks. Nursey nods.

“I’m good.”

“Yeah, because your foot is trembling.”

“I promise I’m good. It’s just my foot that’s a little nervous.” Lardo looks at Nursey and then nods.

“Alright, so we’ll get to work. Get your mind off of things a little.”

Fifteen minutes later, the sail is packed up, and two of the other three people with them are on their way back down. The other one calls over from the other side of the sail: “Do we have to get back down yet?”

Dex comes closer to Nursey and calls over: “As long as no one is saying anything, we’ll just stay up here.” He reaches the cable Nursey is standing on and with a warning steps on it too. Nursey doesn’t think he’ll get used to how the cable moves anytime soon. One of his feet is trembling again.

“That you?” Dex asks and Nursey shrugs.

“Yeah.” He feels more than sees Dex answering shrug.

“It’s a thing that happens when you’re not used to this position. If you lean forward some more it gets better.”

Nursey leans more of his weight on the sail. His foot stops trembling. Huh.

Beneath him, on deck, people are moving around and in front of him, the sea glitters from the setting sun. Afar, he can make out the lighthouse. It’s quiet up here, the voices from down below not quite carrying all the way up and Nursey thinks he could get used to this.

“If you’re quite finished up there y’all can come back down,” the captain says through his mic and Dex sighs.

Once they’re back down, Dex smiles at Nursey. “You liked it?”

“Very much, yes.”

“Good.” Dex grins, his eyes twinkling. “So you want to come back some time and do it again?”


End file.
